The AMA STEPS Forward, Whatever the F That Means
I found this from the AMA:
Committed to making physician burnout a thing of the past, the AMA has studied, and is addressing, issues causing and fueling physician burnout—including time constraints, technology and regulations—to better understand the challenges physicians face.
The AMA’s STEPS Forward™ is an open-access platform featuring more than 50 modules that offer actionable, expert-driven strategies and insights supported by practical resources and tools. Based on best practices from the field, STEPS Forward modules empower practices to identify areas or opportunities for improvement, set meaningful and achievable goals, and implement transformative changes designed to increase operational efficiencies, elevate clinical team engagement, and improve patient care.
Fifty actionable, expert-driven strategies and insights? Can they blow more smoke? Let’s see some of these brilliant ideas:
- PATIENT CARE 0.5 Credit CME Essentials of Good Pain Care: A Team-Based Approach: Organize your practice to safely manage acute and chronic painAMA STEPS Forward
- TECHNOLOGY AND FINANCE 0.5 Credit CME Electronic Health Record Optimization: Strategies for Thriving: Strategies to help health care organizations maximize the benefits and minimize the burdens of the EHRAMA STEPS Forward
- PATIENT CARE 0.5 Credit CME Addressing Social Determinants of Health (SDOH): Beyond the Clinic Walls: Improve health outcomes by addressing social determinants of healthAMA STEPS Forward
- WORKFLOW AND PROCESS 0.5 Credit CME Identifying the Optimal Panel Sizes for Primary Care Physicians: Determine and adjust panel sizes based on patient and practice variablesAMA STEPS Forward
- PROFESSIONAL WELL-BEING 0.5 Credit CME Creating the Organizational Foundation for Joy in Medicine™: Organizational changes lead to physician satisfactionAMA STEPS Forward
- PATIENT CARE 0.5 Credit CME Adult Vaccinations: Team-Based Immunization: Save time and prevent disease with an immunization programAMA STEPS Forward
- PATIENT CARE 0.5 Credit CME Embedding Pharmacists Into the Practice: Collaborate with pharmacists to improve patient outcomesAMA STEPS Forward
- LEADING CHANGE 0.5 Credit CME Building a Patient Experience Program: Develop a patient experience program to improve your practice and increase satisfaction among patients and caregivers.AMA STEPS Forward
- WORKFLOW AND PROCESS 0.5 Credit CME Adopting OpenNotes: Partnering with Patients: Increase clinical note transparency through OpenNotesAMA STEPS Forward
- PATIENT CARE 0.5 Credit CME Managing Type 2 Diabetes: A Team-Based Approach: Help patients with type 2 diabetes achieve their glycemic goalsAMA STEPS Forward
- WORKFLOW AND PROCESS 0.5 Credit CME EHR In-Basket Restructuring for Improved Efficiency: Efficiently manage your in-basket to provide better, more timely patient careAMA STEPS Forward
- CLINICAL DECISION SUPPORT 0.5 Credit CME Clinical Decision Support and Diagnostic Imaging: Ensure appropriate imaging by leveraging point-of-care clinical decision support toolsAMA STEPS Forward
- PATIENT CARE 0.5 Credit CME Listening with Empathy: Save time, communicate more effectively and improve patient and provider satisfactionAMA STEPS Forward
- LEADING CHANGE 0.5 Credit CMEForming a Patient and Family Advisory Council: Patient and family perspectives can help achieve higher quality care in your practiceAMA STEPS Forward
- PROFESSIONAL WELL-BEING 0.5 Credit CME Preventing Physician Distress and Suicide: Recognize and respond to physician distress and suicidal behaviorAMA STEPS Forward
- LEADING CHANGE 0.5 Credit CME Appreciative Inquiry: Fostering Positive Culture: Boost resilience and collaborationAMA STEPS Forward
- TECHNOLOGY AND FINANCE 0.5 Credit CME Adopting the ECHO model ™ (Extension for Community Healthcare Outcomes): Move knowledge rather than patients: build your primary care capacity through expert clinical specialty mentoring and educationAMA STEPS Forward
- PATIENT CARE 0.5 Credit CME Advancing Choosing Wisely ® : Take action to reduce unnecessary care and avoid harmAMA STEPS Forward
- LEADING CHANGE 0.5 Credit CME Quality improvement using Plan-Do-Study-Act: Strategies for local quality improvement.AMA STEPS Forward
- PATIENT CARE 0.5 Credit CME Preparing Your Practice for Value-Based Care: Make the shift to value-based care and benefit both your practice and your patients
- Adopting a patient pre-registration process: Learn how a streamlined pre-registration process can save time for your patients and your practice.AMA STEPS Forward
- WORKFLOW AND PROCESS 0.5 Credit CME Medical Assistant Professional Development: Enhance the roles of front-line staff, and improve your practice culture, workflow and team dynamics.AMA STEPS Forward
- WORKFLOW AND PROCESS 0.5 Credit CME Implementing Health Coaching: Help patients take charge of their health, and foster healthier patients with better outcomes.AMA STEPS Forward
- PATIENT CARE 0.5 Credit CME Planning for End-of-Life Decisions with Your Patients: Empower patients to communicate their end-of-life decisions.AMA STEPS Forward
- PATIENT CARE 0.5 Credit CME Implementing a Point-of-Care Registry: Help your practice to proactively manage patients with chronic conditions.AMA STEPS Forward
- PATIENT CARE 0.5 Credit CME Using the SafeMed Model to Improve Transitions of Care: Increasing engagement and adherence for complex patients.AMA STEPS Forward
- PROFESSIONAL WELL-BEING 0.5 Credit CME Physician Wellness: Preventing Resident and Fellow Burnout: Create a holistic, supportive culture of wellnessAMA STEPS Forward
- WORKFLOW AND PROCESS 0.5 Credit CME Optimizing Space in Medical Practices: Design for meaningful and efficient patient visitsAMA STEPS Forward
- TECHNOLOGY AND FINANCE 0.5 Credit CMERevenue Cycle Management in Medical Practice: Guidance on improving administrative burdens through automation and simplificationAMA STEPS Forward
- TECHNOLOGY AND FINANCE 0.5 Credit CME Adopting Telemedicine in Practice: Support patient and care-team coordination and communication through remote patient monitoringAMA STEPS Forward
- LEADING CHANGE 0.5 Credit CME Preparing Your Practice for Change: Create the optimal practice environmentAMA STEPS Forward
- PATIENT CARE 0.5 Credit CME Behavioral Health Integration into Ambulatory Practice: Expand patient care and improve practice efficiencyAMA STEPS Forward
- LEADING CHANGE 0.5 Credit CME Select sustainable change initiatives: Implement successful, sustainable practice changeAMA STEPS Forward
- PATIENT CARE 0.5 Credit CME Building an Intensive Primary Care Practice: Provide better care to the patients who need it mostAMA STEPS Forward
- WORKFLOW AND PROCESS 0.5 Credit CME Implementing a daily team huddle: Boost practice productivity and team morale, by communicating in real time about the day’s eventsAMA STEPS Forward
- WORKFLOW AND PROCESS 0.5 Credit CMEImplementing Team-Based Care: Engage the entire team in caring for patientsAMA STEPS Forward
- PATIENT CARE 0.5 Credit CME Panel Management: Focus on providing proactive, preventive care to improve the health of your patients.AMA STEPS Forward
- WORKFLOW AND PROCESS 0.5 Credit CME Conducting Effective Team Meetings: Develop strategies and tactics for effective team meetings that strengthen working relationships and improve practice efficiency.AMA STEPS Forward
- PROFESSIONAL WELL-BEING 0.5 Credit CME Preventing Physician Burnout: Improve patient satisfaction, quality outcomes and provider recruitment and retention.AMA STEPS Forward
- WORKFLOW AND PROCESS 0.5 Credit CME Creating Strong Team Culture: Evaluate and improve team culture in your practice.
- PROFESSIONAL WELL-BEING 0.5 Credit CME Improving Physician Resiliency: Foster self-care and protect against burnout.AMA STEPS Forward
- PATIENT CARE 0.5 Credit CME Medication Adherence: Improve the health of your patients and reduce overall health care costs.AMA STEPS Forward
- LEADING CHANGE 1 Credit CME Starting Lean Health Care: Eliminate waste in the workday and equip the team to spend more time on patient care.AMA STEPS Forward
- PATIENT CARE 1 Credit CME Preventing Type 2 Diabetes in At-Risk Patients: Help your patients find ways to prevent type 2 diabetes through education, screening and local referral programs.AMA STEPS Forward
- PATIENT CARE 0.5 Credit CME Improving Blood Pressure Control: Measure, Act and Partner (M.A.P.) to help patients control blood pressure and ultimately prevent heart disease.AMA STEPS Forward
- TECHNOLOGY AND FINANCE 1 Credit CME Electronic Health Record (EHR) Implementation: Ease the transition from paper to electronic health records.AMA STEPS Forward
- WORKFLOW AND PROCESS 0.5 Credit CME Pre-Visit Laboratory Testing: Improve patient care and enhance the patient experience without spending more time and money.AMA STEPS Forward
- TECHNOLOGY AND FINANCE 0.5 Credit CME Electronic Health Record (EHR) Software Selection and Purchase: Understand practice needs and evaluate readiness for selection and purchase.AMA STEPS Forward
- WORKFLOW AND PROCESS 0.5 Credit CME Pre-Visit Planning: Enhance the patient experience, increase patient engagement and improve practice efficiency.AMA STEPS Forward
- WORKFLOW AND PROCESS 0.5 Credit CME Expanded Rooming and Discharge Protocols: Empower staff to make patient visits more meaningful and efficient.AMA STEPS Forward
- WORKFLOW AND PROCESS 0.5 Credit CME Synchronized Prescription Renewal: Save physician and staff time by renewing prescriptions until the next annual visitAMA STEPS Forward
- WORKFLOW AND PROCESS 0.5 Credit CME Team Documentation: Spend more time caring for patients by sharing responsibilities with staff.
Having fun yet? Did they fix your burnout? Feel free to pick one and mock it in the comments. My favorite, so far:
WORKFLOW AND PROCESS 0.5 Credit CME Identifying the Optimal Panel Sizes for Primary Care Physicians: Determine and adjust panel sizes based on patient and practice variablesAMA STEPS Forward
Really? It’s that simple just to fire half your panel. Yeah, that’s not going to happen.
Your turn.
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I have a question for the “experts” at the AMA: Does this CME qualify for MOC?
I had to laugh out loud for the 0.5 CME to address social determinants of health (SDOH!)–because you have to have acronyms–this is worthy of a Nobel Prize.
Summary: Physician heal thyself!
How about (10 credit units): Acknowledge senior status and retire???
Whoopeee!!!!
We can’t talk about this without acknowledging the mastermind behind it, the evil genius of “Joy in Practice,” the parasite at every money trough, the poster child for everything that’s wrong in medicine today – Dr. Sinsky!
He’ll. Yes.
Like I have time to read this BS. Hmmmm reading this stuff causes burnout. How about beurocratic drag. It’s they all want us to be employees so they can deflate any power we have.
I get a headache just looking at this stuff.
This should be required reading for every pre-med student. It might save a few.
I follow the radio industry in my spare time. Don’t ask me why but I find it fascinating. In any case, the industry began its downward spiral when radio stations/companies went public. From that point on, the emphasis was/is investor profit. Nothing else matters. Buy up hundreds of stations, have one radio announcer, sell ads. Let it rip. Work the few employees to exhaustion. No more local stations who vie to compete, to please and attract listeners.
Remind anyone of anything? Like how businessmen took over healthcare? How profit is the key motivator. How Docs are just employees? I mean, Providers.
Somehow we never learn…
I’m sure radio consultants now publish missives on how station employees can avoid burnout.
God help all of us.
WORKFLOW AND PROCESS 0.5 Credit CME Implementing a daily team huddle: Boost practice productivity and team morale, by communicating in real time about the day’s Events
Team!?! What team? It’s just me and my husband. A two person huddle?? We communicate all day long. No huddle needed. Who’s going to pay for this team? And the pharmacist listed in another module? Most of these modules are for larger practices. Not for solo and small practices. No one seems to care about solo practices any more. They all want us in giant hospital owned practices.
Jennifer, we in dentistry have been told to have “huddles” in the morning in order to increase “practice productivity”. Translation: identify the patients who are ripe for upselling expensive treatments.
How do you increase productivity? You eek max dollars out of each victim, er, patient.
Like going in for an auto oil change–suddenly you just might need a new transmission.
It is sickening.
This is my favorite:
WORKFLOW AND PROCESS 0.5 Credit CME Pre-Visit Laboratory Testing: Improve patient care and enhance the patient experience without spending more time and money.
Sure, this will work in Rheumatology. Let’s order a comprehensive rheumatologic lab work up on every patient before I evaluate them. Because that will totally save time and money. ????
OMG these modules are so horrible, it’s hard to choose just one, but I’ll try:
TECHNOLOGY AND FINANCE 1 Credit CME Electronic Health Record (EHR) Implementation: Ease the transition from paper to electronic health records.AMA STEPS Forward
Your money at work…sigh!